The rover will try out its sample scoop near a formation called the Rocknest.

The Curiosity rover is now well on its way to its first major destination, a site called Glenelg that's only about 100m from its current position. On its drive, which it started over 50 sols (Martian days) ago, it has continued to check out its equipment, almost all of which seems to be working well. In its next test, planned for sometime over the next few days, the rover will start checking out its chemistry lab in preparation for analyzing the material it encounters in future drives.

The system is comprised of a scoop at the end of its robotic arm, which can pick up loose material from Mars' surface and deposit it into a chamber in the rover's body. From there, the material can be sent on to on-board laboratory hardware, which actually performs the analysis. Conceptually, this is similar to the setup that operated on the Mars Phoenix Lander, which found evidence of perchlorates in soil from near one of the Martian poles. The system can also take input from a drill to allow it to sample solid rocks.

Currently, the rover is at Rocknest, a site with (as you might expect) a set of rocks poking out of a sandy bed. Curiosity used one of its wheels to dig into the bed as shown above, confirming that the material is appropriate for accessing with the scoop. The goal is to run a couple of scoops through the sample-handling machinery in order to clear out any material that has gotten into it during the rover's travels to its current location. After two samples a run through, the third will actually be sent off to the different chemistry labs within the rover.

The process will be slow, and personnel at the Jet Propulsion Lab don't expect the first samples to be analyzed for a couple of weeks. During that time, the rover will remain at the Rocknest formation.

15 Reader Comments

That link to the Phoenix's perchlorate findings makes me chuckle. It seems that the last 30 years or so, we've had a series of microbiological (or even macrobiological in the case of sea vent critters) discoveries that steadily have invalidated the list of 'organic life can't exist here because of __'. Sure, we have to form investigational boundaries based on our current understanding, but I can't help but think those boundaries are a tad conservative sometimes.

The instant gratification space nut in me hates it (turn over a rock and find a bacterial mat, damn it!), and that two weeks seems like forever, but it's a tiny fraction of time compared to how long it will take to actually digest all the data this rover is creating, and for scientists to start publishing.

Looking at that picture, the wheel tracks appear to have sharp, well-defined edges, which would suggest that Martian sand (at least around where Curiosity is) is more like lunar regolith than sand here on Earth; that is, not smoothed and rounded via weathering, which would mean that it has never been in contact with water or other liquid for a long period. (Although I'd think wind and dust storms, which are definitely present on Mars, would have the same smoothing effect.)

Looking at that picture, the wheel tracks appear to have sharp, well-defined edges, which would suggest that Martian sand (at least around where Curiosity is) is more like lunar regolith than sand here on Earth; that is, not smoothed and rounded via weathering, which would mean that it has never been in contact with water or other liquid for a long period. (Although I'd think wind and dust storms, which are definitely present on Mars, would have the same smoothing effect.)

Looking at that picture, the wheel tracks appear to have sharp, well-defined edges, which would suggest that Martian sand (at least around where Curiosity is) is more like lunar regolith than sand here on Earth; that is, not smoothed and rounded via weathering, which would mean that it has never been in contact with water or other liquid for a long period. (Although I'd think wind and dust storms, which are definitely present on Mars, would have the same smoothing effect.)

Interesting how the different lab cultures seem to permeate rover instrument handling.

- The solid sample handling Chemin system gets a repeated fill-and-rinse-with-original-sample prep. I hear they take that from wet chemistry analysis, which if care is needed you can see people wash out contaminants and prep wet surfaces et cetera.

- The generic sample analysis SAM system didn't get that for the gas analysis, which is why the first atmospheric analysis was "a fail" of seeing Earth trace contaminants.

Maybe they will get their planning synchronized with the next rover. It is NASA, expect another layer of administration to coordinate that. (O.o)

Speaking of the atmospheric sampling, I feel kranchammered between the ears when at least some articles described the 2nd attempt of gas gulping would have started in the beginning of last month and deliver results in "about a week" - and then not even a fart has slipped out.

Here is Nature News blog from last month:

"Deputy project scientist Joy Crisp says that, on 2 and 3 September, the instrument, which can detect methane at levels of parts per trillion, took a second sample of the atmosphere — this time pumping out residual air from Earth. Results could come in about a week — and these could shed light on the controversial question of martian methane. “We expect to be able to measure it at levels that other experiments have measured it at — if it’s truly there,” Crisp says."

Was Crisp mistaken? Was experiment abandoned mid way? Was it another fail? Or was it too interesting (i.e methane) or too inconclusive to let out among the public too soon? Is it time to start the old "they found life" rumor mill? (Say, unambiguously by observing both methane and nitrous oxides.)

I mean, you would think _one_ paper or blogger with connections would follow up. I feel oxygen starved as it were.

Looking at that picture, the wheel tracks appear to have sharp, well-defined edges, which would suggest that Martian sand (at least around where Curiosity is) is more like lunar regolith than sand here on Earth; that is, not smoothed and rounded via weathering, which would mean that it has never been in contact with water or other liquid for a long period.

It seems from rover results that martian dust is surprisingly sharp, which is one reason it so easily clogs sampling equipment. Such dust tends to interlock and stick to surface structure. (I think you can google Phoenix on that.)

Since aeolian (wind) processes are so important on Mars, it could perhaps be predicted. Fresh dust will be generated and transported to cover everything all the time.

As on the Moon, this gives biological concerns. Sharp minerals, or at least fibers of asbestos and carbon nanotubes (which are generated when burning many or most organics in an oxygen/water atmosphere as I understand it) penetrate cell membranes, put a monkey wrench into the cell machinery, and can that way be cancerogenous. As the below quote shows, mechanically aggressive dust has other biological effects as well.

""Dust is the No. 1 environmental problem on the moon," said Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who reported having a severe allergic reaction to moon dust during his mission in 1972. "We need to understand what the (biological) effects are, because there's always the possibility that engineering might fail.""

Dust properties will likely be in research focus as long as manned missions and/or remote sampling are considered.

Some of the older sediments are water rounded, Curiosity has already tested that with the find of stream bed conglomerates which are already claimed to be billions of years old. Meaning they were from before the Gale crater was backfilled and then mostly emptied out again by aeolian processes.

The question becomes if the intermediate sediments, the Gale mound, are weathered round. If the upper parts were aeolian deposits sedimented in place by irregular and rare snowmelts as the latest theory on them predicts, they would probably have a sharp microstructure too.

I guess if so they could be very hard from the interlocking of spiky parts. Hope they brought hard drill bits!

I suspected Martian wind contains some level of moisture, either it's methane base or liquid H2O base or from other unknown chemical? And that wheel tracks seems formed by super-fine humid sands to get that sharp edges even it's under low gravity. Could it be some moisture (methane or H2O) underneath we don't know of yet?

Interesting how the different lab cultures seem to permeate rover instrument handling.

- The solid sample handling Chemin system gets a repeated fill-and-rinse-with-original-sample prep. I hear they take that from wet chemistry analysis, which if care is needed you can see people wash out contaminants and prep wet surfaces et cetera.

- The generic sample analysis SAM system didn't get that for the gas analysis, which is why the first atmospheric analysis was "a fail" of seeing Earth trace contaminants.

Maybe they will get their planning synchronized with the next rover. It is NASA, expect another layer of administration to coordinate that. (O.o)

Speaking of the atmospheric sampling, I feel kranchammered between the ears when at least some articles described the 2nd attempt of gas gulping would have started in the beginning of last month and deliver results in "about a week" - and then not even a fart has slipped out.

Here is Nature News blog from last month:

"Deputy project scientist Joy Crisp says that, on 2 and 3 September, the instrument, which can detect methane at levels of parts per trillion, took a second sample of the atmosphere — this time pumping out residual air from Earth. Results could come in about a week — and these could shed light on the controversial question of martian methane. “We expect to be able to measure it at levels that other experiments have measured it at — if it’s truly there,” Crisp says."

Was Crisp mistaken? Was experiment abandoned mid way? Was it another fail? Or was it too interesting (i.e methane) or too inconclusive to let out among the public too soon? Is it time to start the old "they found life" rumor mill? (Say, unambiguously by observing both methane and nitrous oxides.)

I mean, you would think _one_ paper or blogger with connections would follow up. I feel oxygen starved as it were.

Ha, kranchammered.

I imagine ( just an educated guess) that the data collection / data collation / data analysis process is only short circuited when something dramatic or with exciting possibilities is noticed right away.

Judging from the depth of the track print on this super-fine-grain-soft sands it didn't seems too deep of a print on the photo that somehow indicating the weight of Curiosity is a light-weight rover little guy. If that's the case, I'm curious how Curiosity withstand the Martian's thousand miles per hours high speed wind without being blown itself away from its current location? I mean this Curiosity got to be there already a few days old, right? No wind at all for the last few days on Mars or where rover is at? I wonder how the wind cycle on Mars, once a day, or once a week, or once in a year only? It sounds stupid, but hey, I don't know.

The realistic of the photo image shows that the quality of the photo transmission from Mars to Earth is greater than great. When I first look at the image the tire track looks so real it looks like an old tire left off from an vehicle on the sands . (or was it the good quality resolution of my netbook? ) NASA didn't cut corner on that camera. (just kidding NASA) :-)